Readers here are familiar with the idea that wind turbines do not generate electricity when the wind doesn't blow and it is also now widely understood that they have to be switched off when the wind blows too hard as well, either because the grid can't take the surges or because it's dangerous to have the turbine spin too fast.

Night operation of the windmills in the North Allegheny Windpower Project has been halted following discovery of a dead Indiana bat under one of the turbines, an official with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday.

The finding marks only the second location where an Indiana bat has been found dead under a wind turbine. Two Indiana bats were found under turbines in the Mid-west, said Clint Riley, supervisor for Fish and Wildlife’s Pennsylvania field office.

“While finding the dead bat is not good news for any of us, it does show the monitoring works,” Riley said from his State College office.

Of course, the story concerns a particular species of bat in the US, but it's interesting to consider the implications for other parts of the world. According to this document:

...throughout Europe high-flying bat species are most frequently killed and most fatalaties are of the Nyctalus and Pipistrellus spp.

These two subspecies are both found here in the UK, where they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, along with all other kinds of bat. The legislation makes it a crime to:

Deliberately capture, injure or kill a bat

Intentionally or recklessly disturb a bat in its roost or deliberately disturb a group of bats

It is interesting to wonder if building a windfarm, in the full knowledge that it will kill bats, counts as "deliberate". No doubt there are legal precedents here. If it does then no doubt windfarms across the UK will be closing down at dusk, at least during the warmer months of the year.

I dislike windmills because they are inefficient, destabilise the grid and put up my electricity bills. That I think, should be enough to stop building the things. That they kill bats and birds is not something that we should making too much of a fuss about. Buses, aircraft, and just about ...

Reader Comments (57)

Are you disillusioned by rising electricity prices, over dependence on the "green" dream [especially uneconomical and inefficient wind farms] and the destruction of our countryside then please register your objection to the Government on

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22958

or by GOOGLING "E-PETITION 22958" and following the link.

Please pass this message on to Councillors, members of your community and anyone else you know to persuade them to sign up too. If you are really concerned about wind turbines please write a letter promoting this petition to your local Newsletter and to the Editors of your local newspapers.

@ Bish"It is interesting to wonder if building a windfarm, in the full knowledge that it will kill bats, counts as "deliberate".

Perhaps local planning authorities should be reminded that, until the law on killing birds and bats changes, ‘Wilful Blindness’ is no defence and that by granting permissions they are ‘Jointly and Severally’ liable with the turbine builder/operator and land owners.

James P:I strongly suspect that the RSPB (who seem only really interested in wading birds) have been nobbled.

An RSPB marketing deal whereby it sold members and supporters "green" electricity supplied by Scottish and Southern Electricity and earned commission thereon ran for the best part of ten years before finally closing in (IIRC) March last year. Its leadership didn't need any nobbling; it has actively campaigned for wind power for years and played as much part in foisting this crap on us as any other body in the eco-lobby.

In the UK, the protection of bats from being killed by wind turbines is given more importance than is protecting local residents from the noise impacts upon sleeplessness and other consequential ill health effects.

dearime: I understand through the grapevine that the recently opened Fullabrook wind farm in Devon is having all sorts of effects on the wildlife and domestic animals. The turbines are fixed to the bedrock and the infrasound is apparently travelling a long way.

See also http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/06/wind-turbine-syndrome-affects-more-people-than-previously-thought/#more-58443

And this heart-rending story http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2012/my-name-is-tracy-ontario/?var=cna

It's what you get if you allow sandal wearing vegans to decide your power generation policies. Give me chaps with leather patches on their Harris Tweed jackets sucking pensively on their briars any day.

I feel a campaign coming on here that will cause alot of embarrassment to the Greens/the corrupt and just maybe a judicial review of windmills.

We have evidence that windmills kill birds and batsMany species of birds and bats have statutory protectionWe have precedent (in America)We know that developers, planners etc. act in the knowledge that killing of birds and bats is inevitable.

I think that the first thing we should do is to conduct a survey and set up a database of such incidents, ideally one for each windmill farm.Select a particularly egregious case- the Glen Devon windfarm (proximity to Vane Farm reserve) looks promising.

Send said evidence to the RSPB and invite them to do their duty.If they decline then I invite everyone on this blog to write to the Press, their MP, the Governors and Directors of the RSPB to justify their position.

Who is on for this?

Anyone live close enough to Glen Devon to take some nice pictures of avian death and destruction before the evidence is "swept under the carpet"?

I am serious about this- and once I get the bit between my teeth I will go all the way. As CRU and the ICO know to their cost.

I would not have considered that building and/or operating a windfarm falls within the expression deliberate. Tahter, it is reckless in the sense that there is a complete disregard of a known risk,

However, your citation seems to indicate that recklessness applies only to disturbing bats in their roost and windfarms are not built in the bats' roost and unless the noise emitted from windfarms disturbs the bats in their roost, it is difficult to see that a case on recklessness could be made out.

That said, it has always surprised me that bodies such as the RSPCB support windfarms. If they were true to their cause and interested in protecting birds surely they should campaign against the erection of windfarms.

steve - interesting in the clip that you refer to"In the past few months the nine metre high generator has taken the lives of 14 birds – far higher than the manufacturer’s estimate of one per year."

So, there should be manufacturers' estimates available and we should ask whether these have been updated in line with experience e.g. quoting the case in point. Are there also manufacturers' estimates for bats? Are manufacturers' estimates necessarily recorded during the planning process and if so, are they subsequently verified etc. etc.

I dislike windmills because they are inefficient, destabilise the grid and put up my electricity bills. That I think, should be enough to stop building the things. That they kill bats and birds is not something that we should making too much of a fuss about. Buses, aircraft, and just about everything that moves does too. If we ban windmills because of the threat they pose to wildlife then logically there is an equal case to do the same to really important things. Remember, the Green lobby don't actually love animals, they hate humans and anything they can do to screw up our society they will do.

Windmills also have to be turned BY the grid during quiet periods as otherwise the main bearing will distort. Currently bearings anyway need replacing roughly every 12 months. In some cases there are backup diesel generators (the Thames array I think is a case in point) on site in addition to using grid power.

Has any body got any sites where you can post pictures of Ugly Houses with solar panels Theres a really bad one between Crystal Palace and Norwood and theres anotherone next to the Golf driving range in Elmers End

So the risk of death and injury to bats may shut a windfarm down? A few dead seagulls will shut a school turbine down. What will the first dead or injured child lead to? Here are some relevant reports:

http://climatelessons.blogspot.com/2012/01/climate-change-scaremongering-threatens.htmlincluding ''Wind blades fell in school yardPublished: 21/11/2009Children at an island primary were sent home after a newly-installed wind turbine next to their school collapsed, it emerged yesterday.Parents of youngsters at the 18-pupil Raasay Primary School were asked to collect their children following the incident on November 13.The 50ft turbine will “remain out of commission” until an investigation has been carried out.The 6KW machine was installed at the school earlier this month, but was soon the subject of complaints due to the noise it was making.’'

More on that Portland shut-down here, including o useful link to more background on a crazed eco-community in the area via WUWT: http://climatelessons.blogspot.com/2010/07/primary-school-forced-to-turn-off-wind.html

So, we scare 'em in the classroom with tales of climate doom and the end of the world as we know it, and scare 'em in the playground with dead birds and a fair chance of flying bits of turbine or tower. As AndyS notes above, the greens do indeed hate humanity. And they seem to harbour a special contempt for children.

James P, you might try searching on under-reporting of bird deaths. Here is a relevant extract, with link to follow (emboldening is mine): 'E) - HIGH MORTALITY RATE IN JUVENILE AND ADULT BIRDS: CAUSES OF DEATH IN LESSER SPOTTED EAGLES - Meyburg, B.-U. & C. Meyburg (2009) : ---> LINK

"For the first time on 12.09.2008, an adult male Lesser Spotted Eagle was found dead after collision with a wind turbine."

Read : " for the first time as far as we know ". For people finding dead eagles do not necessarily report them to the authorities. There is a market for eagle feathers, talons and skulls - illegal of course, but the bottom line is that an eagle´s carcass is worth money. Scavengers are another source of statistical inaccuracy, as are windfarm employees. At a wind farm in Aragon (Spain) the remains of 2 vultures have been found in a plastic bag halfway unearthed by scavengers. The hiding of bird carcasses by wind farm employees has been confirmed by SEO/Spanish Birdlife - see (B) above.Link: http://www.iberica2000.org/Es/Articulo.asp?Id=4242

The same site also has this assertion from Sweden:'He later wrote to me as follows: "We have also received reports of areas under wind turbines being "cleaned" from dead birds and bats, again if true (which one might suspect it is) making the statistics very conservative."'http://www.iberica2000.org/es/Articulo.asp?Id=3071

Bird kill is a bigger problem for smaller wind turbines. The biggest turbines have blade tips that are 70m above the ground, and most birds fly lower than that. Also the chances of being hit by one of these large blades is reduced as they only sweep through a particular location every few seconds, in contrast to multiple times per second on a small turbine.

This is not to say that wind turbines aren't a waste of money in low wind resource countries like the UK

Also on the Wildlife and Countryside Act - am I not right in thinking that any 'equipment' used to kill a bat is liable to 'confiscation'..? 'Right - hand over that wind turbine...'Furthermore - isn't the penalty for killing protected species (bats) £5000 PER BAT..??Seems to me that we have a rich vein of objections here to be voiced at any public hearing about a proposed windfarm - and the news that an American wind farm is to be closed down at dusk due to the discovery of a dead Indiana bat should silence any developer stating that 'wind turbines don't kill bats'...I also like the post above which implies that any councillor 'approving' a windfarm is 'knowingly aiding and abetting' the killing of protected species...!Seems to me that there could be a whole new service industry opportunity here: 'Windfarm Operators, Landowners and Developers..! Early morning clearance of dead birds of prey and bats - competitive rates....'

Justy a point in answer to your headline, Bish:'When do wind farms work..?'Well - not over recent days, that's for sure...Last 24 hours: Wind output 0.4% of electricity demand (c170MW, equates to 4.5% of installed windfarm capacity)..Anyone bright enough to do the maths in terms of £million/billion per MW..?

The RSPB also did not object to the Griffin or Calliachar wind farms in Highland Perthshire. Irrc Griffin was known to encroach on habitat used by at least one pair of merlins, and the Calliachar site encompassed a nest site known to have been used by golden eagles in the not too distant past. Calliachar is on higher moorland, classic habitat for hen harriers, which are in decline in this area. The RSPB refused to give evidence to the public inquiry, despite repeated requests to do so by the Tayside Raptor Group. These birds are all Annex 1, so not just protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, but also by European law. To anyone who attended the inquiry, it was apparent that there had been a stitch-up between the renewables companies, SNH (acting for the Scottish Government) and the RSPB beforehand. I am convinced the deal was that if the Scottish Government dropped or refused the massive windfarm that was proposed on Lewis, then the RSPB would turn a blind eye to what was proposed in Highland Perthshire. Given that the discovery of some capercaillie droppings near a proposed mountainbike trail in the Cairngorms meant that the trail had to be relocated to Laggan 20 miles to the south (for fear of the Scottish Ministers being taken to court in Brussels), I still find it astonishing that the Scottish Government has permitted these wind farms, which in time, I am sure will lead to the death of a number of these Annex 1 raptors.

The economic case against wind and the fact that the construction of windfarms does not result in any significant reduction of CO2 is strong enough on its own, without using emotive issues such as bird kill. I cosnider that running with such issues dilutes the message as to how bad windfarms are. I do not consider that it adds to the message.

Let's stick to the science, the futility of wind and the economic madness.

I quite disagree. The bird, bat, and other loss of life caused by these monstrosities is central because they are being sold as GREEN and eco-friendly. We are told that we should pay extra in our electric bills to support these things while in fact they are hypocritically quite the opposite.

Your point about cars, planes and other vehicles kill wild life are really not a congruent argument because nobody sells them as being eco-friendly.

As for the economics of wind mills, you are quite right that that alone should put paid to them, but the emotional issue used to originally sell them, the issue of eco-friendly, should be attacked as well.

So vultures are killed by turbines, but not necessarily by the blades. The birds can fly into them just because they are very tall and in the way. So the also fly into electricity pylons and cables for the same reason.

In that case the bird loving groups should clamour for the destruction of all tall structures that get in the way of vultures and the needs of any human requirement for power should be overridden.

I'd be interested to know whether the figures for bird/bat deaths decrease over time for any given site. Are some members of a species more likely than others to fly into turbines, boosting kill-rates in early years but eventually resulting in a species selected to avoid wind turbines?

Bat kills significantly outnumber bird kills by turbines as it is not just impact with the rotating blades that cripples or kills them. Barotrauma, the exploding of their delicate lungs by the pressure waves generated by the blades kills and injures at a much greater distance. http://www.mesc.usgs.gov/Products/Publications/pub_abstract.asp?PubId=22447

SadButMadThe thing about cables and pylons as opposed to windmills is that they are fixed whereas windmill blades turn some of the time. Resident birds become aware of the location of the pylons at least. I have seen (mainly in France) the cables fitted with silver/white balls of fishing net float size. I don't know if their purpose is increased visibility for passing birds, but if not it probably helps.

The latest generation of windmills are so large that the swept area is huge. The larger the circle the higher the speed of the tips the more chance of catching a bird unawares.

Personally I think it is the small things like bird kill which will cause a backlash. Look at how successful the animal rights campaign against shipping of animals in from aboard for medical research has been. All we need is a similar campaign against windmills.

While I tend to agree that the economic arguement against windfarms is a potent one, I also think that wildlife habitat is equally important. It is also backed up by various EU Directives which have been transposed into UK law.

see Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora. There is an ecological network of protected sites, designated as Special Sites of Conservation (SACs) for habitats and Special Protection Areas (SPAs).

I checked out one SAC in my local area and the primary reason for the selection of the site is because of the presence of the Greater Horseshoe bat, Barbastelle, and Bechstein's bat.

Ramsar sites are designated under the International Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (the Ramsar Convention); there are a total of 148 sites in the UK.

Directive 2009/147/EC is the Birds Directive on the conservation of wild birds and includes the maintenance of the population of all wild bird species across their natural range (Article 2) with the encouragement of various activities to that end (Article 3), SPAs as mentioned above, the establishment of a general scheme of protection for all wild birds (Article 5), (I like this next one) Prohibition of large-scale non-selective means of bird killing (Article 8).

It goes on and on, and must therefore be considered as an important matter, not something to be dismissed lightly. Birds and bats are extremely important and a legitimate cause for concern.

I have bats in my garden and love to see them swooping around and I also feed the birds in the garden, but am not a mad twitcher. I just offer this information to say that there is important justification for using bat and bird deaths in the fight against bloody turbines.